Play Spore on Facebook

As if Facebook needed another way to slowly suck away your precious life hours.

Now it's got Spore Islands, from EA/Maxis. Facebook users can experience the series in a new way by competing against each other in a survival of the fittest.

“In Spore Islands, players get to invite friends in their social web to play on their island, so creating this game exclusively for Facebook was a natural choice for us since they are the largest and most popular social platform for games,” stated Caryl Shaw, Senior Producer of Spore Islands. “What sets Spore Islands apart from other social games is that it offers a different kind of social interactivity where a player’s gameplay experience is directly affected by the choices and decisions their friends make. It’s an ongoing game, so player’s [sic] creatures and islands will be active at all times, whether the player is logged into Facebook or not.”

"Games are one of the most popular activities on Facebook, with more than 100 million unique active users in the top 10 games alone. We are excited to see Spore Islands as one of the latest games on Facebook for our 300 million users to connect, share and play with friends,” said Facebook Platform Manager Gareth Davis.

Users will be able to choose their own islands and create creatures to live on them and evolve. Inviting friends to your island as well as sending your creatures to your friends' islands will help you dominate the most islands possible. You'll be able to earn and purchase DNA points that can be used to modify creature stats and appearances, with accessories like hats, animations, holiday-themed items, and more. Track your progress on both Global and Friends-only leaderboards.

I don't yet have the self-discipline to rejoin Facebook, but this is tempting.